The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) rendered a first-instance judgment in Senad Džananović et al. The judgment, announced by the presiding judge on 11 June 2021, found the accused Senad Džananović and Edin Gadžo guilty of the criminal offense of War Crime against the Civilian Population under Article 142 of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia /CC SFRY/. The Court sentenced the accused Senad Džananović and Edin Gadžo to, respectively, 11 (eleven) years’ imprisonment and 5 (five) years’ imprisonment.
The accused have been found guilty because they, during the war in BiH and the armed conflict between the Army of RBiH /Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina/ and the Army of the RS /Republika Srpska/, from mid-April 1992 until August 1992, at Alipašino Polje, municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo, as members of the Territorial Defense Staff “Stela” and Special Units of the Army of RBiH, together with their superior Jusuf Prazina aka Juka (Commander of the Special Units of the Army of RBiH) and Samir Kahvedžić aka Kruško (Commander of the Territorial Defense Staff “Stela”) (both deceased), violated Articles 3, 27, 31, 42, 43, 44, 51, 78, 81, 85 and 147 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 and Articles 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 17 of Protocol additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Relating to the Protection of Victims on Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) by knowingly and willingly participating in unlawful imprisonment of civilians of Serbian ethnicity who were unlawfully deprived of liberty in the territory of the city of Sarajevo, taken to the premises of the Territorial Defense Staff “Stela” at Alipašino Polje (former cafe Borsalino, Trg ZAVNOBIH Street No. 23 and premises of the Mladost local commune) and imprisoned in detention facilities in the basement of a residential building at Alipašino Polje (“B” block), Pešter butcher’s shop and other premises in the same building where they were subjected to killings, rapes, torture and inhumane treatment.
The civilians were also taken to perform forced labor during which they were exposed to lethal danger and subjected to various forms of physical and psychological ill-treatment by the accused, other members of the Territorial Defense Staff “Stela” and third parties.
